As the Delhi government begins the process of purchasing 1,000 new buses that are expected to hit city roads in the next 9-10 months, it still faces a shortage of nearly 3,700 more to cover all city routes.

According to official figures, there is a need for around 11,000 buses to cover all the areas in the city, which has a total of 865 routes.

"Delhi needs 11,000 buses for all its areas to be covered. We have initiated the process to acquire 1,000 more.

It will take around 9-10 months for them to land on city roads," Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said.

The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has a fleet of 3,944 buses. The Delhi Integrated Multimodal Transit System (DIMTS) also runs 1,634 buses under the cluster scheme.

The combined strength of around 5,600 buses manages to cover nearly 75 per cent of the identified routes in the city.

Further, a total of 799 mini stage carriage buses ply on 124 routes, as per the Transport department statistics.

The State Transport Authority has identified 657 routes, while the DTC has earmarked 208 more for bus operations. The cluster buses run on 124 of these routes and the DTC operates on 465.

The total number of buses including those run by the DTC, cluster ones and mini stage carriers comes to about 6,300. The proposed purchase of 1,000 bues will take the number to 7,300 leaving the fleet short of 3,700 buses to reach the required 11,000 figure.

The government has identified a total of 865 routes for operation of buses and the Transport Department has been able to ply buses on 714 of these routes, with many stretches having fewer than required number of buses serving them, officials said.

Last-mile connectivity is another area the government is focusing on, the Transport minister informed in the recently held session of the Delhi Assembly.

The department seeks to link the routes of RTVs, e- rickshaws and Gramin Sewa vehicles in future to boost last- mile connectivity, he had said.